NO MORE WATER until you see growth - they rot Very easily! It will take 6 weeks of heat for them to start growing, so the more heat you can give it, the sooner it will get growing. You might consider placing a regular heating pad inside a waterproof plastic bag and turning it on low - that should do it. Light isn't important at this stage - only heat.

As kayjones says it can take some time to sprout so in the meantime keep it warm and barely moist--even so, I've found that some will rot without ever sprouting. Direct sun may help, if only to warm the soil up.

In zone 4, once it sprouts you should give it the warmest, sunniest spot you can find. I don't generally recommend elephant ears for containers because they just take soooo much water. By mid-summer you will be watering it every day, sometimes twice. It helps to have a large saucer that will hold water, but even that may not help a lot on hot sunny days. (In zone 4 it may not be as big a problem as it is for me in zone 7.)

Here's a money-saving tip. Elephant ear bulbs from garden centres and mail order can be very expensive. What I have done is to go to a supermarket where I buy the bulbs in the produce department, where they are called eddoes. I buy them for about $1.25 a pound! I get great plants, and because buying the bulbs this way is so cheap, I don't bother overwintering them.

See also my message in response to the question about watering elephant ears. It relates to your question, too.

I just got some bulbs from a supermarket too and I was wondering,which way do you plant them? They are oblong and there is a cut end and a smooth end. I would imagine the smooth end is the top and should be planted with that facing up,no? I've grown them before,but I placed it on its side,and eventually it rotted.

I received an Elephant Ear plant in a black plastic container about 2 years ago. The first year we placed it with container in the sun and it did well with little water, then in winter we left it out and the leaves died back, then it regrew. This past winter we moved it under the patio in a sheltered place and it's done very well, still in it's ugly black container, we just spill the dog water in it occasionally! We will plant it in the ground soon so I hope it will do as well.

OK, I don't want to belabor the issue about raising the elephant ear but do you need a larger bulb in order to get those huge leaves. I grew this last year and it had leaves maybe 10" long but nothing like my friend has on her patio, those are HUGE!!! and so many leaves and almost cascades, very impressive.

Vicki

Well, the size depends on the variety and unless you buy a named selection (read $$$) you don't really know what you're getting. The really big ones tend to be forms of Colocasia esculenta, and those are the bowling-ball tubers you see at garden centers.

Heat, water and fertilizer also make a huge difference-the more the better.

Johnnieb - I leave mine in the ground here in 7B. I've heavily mulched them in winter, and I've had some of the knobs that stick up from the ground that turned to a pile of squish. The ones that make it and stay hard come back bigger than ever, but sometimes they're a mixture (some squishy,rotted parts and some areas of the same plant that are solid). Right now I'm waiting for some of them that were partially rotted, instead of digging them up and throwing them away, because they have some green at the bases of the hard knobs that come up from the ground. Do you have any wisdom to share on this?

I have never had any elephant ear survive the winter for me, even with mulch.